《研究生英语读写译教程》（第二版）练习参考答案及参考译文（注：第二版只有第六单元为全新单元，其余单元只是有些调整。
）
各单元练习答案
UNIT ONE STAY HUNGRY. STAY FOOLISH. COMPREHENSION
1 He dropped out of Reed College because he did not see the value of it. (The answer to the second part of the question is open.)
2 Life was tough –he slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, he returned coke bottles and he walked 7 miles to get one good free meal…
3 He cited the example to demonstrate that what he had learned in his calligraphy class worked when designing the first Macintosh computer.
4 Jobs’ first story tells that the dots will somehow connect in your future. (What you have learned/experienced might help in your future career.)
5 He was publicly out. (The company that he and Woz established dismissed him.) The fact that he still loved what he did made him start over again.
6 He has learned a good lesson from his failure.
7 Do the things we love to do.
8 Open.
9 Open.
10 Open. (We should always want more, never be content and when we want to do something that others say is foolish, do it anyway.)
VOCABULARY AND STRUCTURE
A
1 naively
2 curiosity
3 combination
4 let down
5 vision
6 baton
7 creative
8 mirror
9 trap 10 invention
B
1 drowned out
2 tuition
3 Commencement
4 deposit
5 typography
6 make way for
7 animation
8 intuition
9 destination 10 diverge
C
1 follow: orders, rules, advice, fads, an ideal, one’s instinct
2 trust in: honesty, the Lord, power, intuition, sixth sense
3 wear out, fade out, put out, make out, get out, break out
4 play writer/playwright, speedwriter, blog writer, letter writer, editorial writer
5 habitual, textual, accentual, sexual, spiritual, conceptual
6 shocking, stunning, eye-catching, astonishing, striking, dazzling SPEAKING: Open.
TRANSLATION
A
1热烈的鼓掌2波涛汹涌的海面3熟睡4烟瘾大的人5油腻而难消化的食物6烈酒7悲痛的消息8沉闷冗长的读物9〈化〉重水
10他在一家法国银行拥有外国人账户。
11那老实的男孩毫无隐讳地说明了他的行为。
12他突然感到一阵莫明其妙的不安情绪。
13脚踩两条凳,早晚要坠地（即：脚踏两条船）。
14骄者必败。
15 我们遇到一对从巴黎来的夫妇，他们很有趣。
B 见译文部分。
WRITING
A
1.I was asked to do the assignment. So I think there are three reasons for the failure in the
experiment.
2.Although I worked hard to acquire more knowledge, I couldn’t improve my English.
3.Though…..
4.therefore---However
5.If we compare the number of people who worked in this department between 2001 and 2003,
it only increased from five people to twenty but the orders were twice more.
6.We have three ways of recruitment. The first is the recruitment agency, which we used two
years ago. The expenditure was very high and the people provided were not very suitable.
The second is online recruitment. We have never used this method before, so we cannot say this is good or not. However, online recruitment is risky because of the unbelievable resources of the applicants.
7.are-is
8.including---include
9.has a negative impact,
have a positive and powerful effect
10. There never seems to be anything worth watching on television. Young people tend to listen to the radio more than older age groups while older people find it more enjoyable to chat with people of their age.
UNIT TWO TWO TRUTHS TO LIVE BY
COMPREHENSION
1.According to Rabbi Alexander Schindler, we should hold fast to many gifts such
as beauty, love.
2.The author exploits the parable of open and closed hand in the very beginning of
the text to control the idea of the whole text. “Life is a paradox”, because it encourages us to grasp its many gifts although it predetermines their final disappearance.
3.The author tells the audience his experience in hospital to prove the fact that
people are indifferent to the grandeur of each day, and nobody sees the beauty of sunlight or responds to it.
4.According to the author, people are reluctant to accept losses and failures because
they think that the world is theirs to command especially when they are young. 5.Since all of us will perish in the end, we must seek a wider perspective, viewing
our lives as through windows that open on eternity, whereby to reconcile on life’s paradoxical demands. Though our lives are finite, our deeds on earth weave a timeless pattern.
6.Life is a process. During the process, we should hold fast to life, but not so fast
that we cannot let go; we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.
7.According to the author, we should pursue the ideal, for ideals alone invest life
with meaning and are of enduring worth.
8.Alexander Schindler encourages the students to exalt above their personal
considerations and to perfect the present world.
9.There is strong religious color in the text. Alexander Schindler asks us to hold fast
to God’s gifts, to be reverent before each dawning day, to view our lives as through windows that open on eternity, and to add religion to the humblest of edifices.
10.The author delivers this speech to the university students in order to teach them
how to cope with life’s paradoxical problems in a wise way, and what to pursue. VOCABULARY AND STRUCTURE
A
1. renounce
2. tender
3. petty
4. relish
5. gleaned
6. abounds in
7. parable
8. evanescent
9. redeem 10. sanctuary
B
1. indifference to
2. Preoccupied
3. redeem
4. cling ing to
5. relentless
6. paradox
7. ordained
8. wanes
9. exalted
10. dawn/have dawned on
C
1.the meaning the opportunity the door happiness the purpose
2. the question the jokes the advertisement the film the lecture
3. run drive speak sail stick
4. arrival survival refusal approval renewal
5. restless priceless endless homeless aimless
6. widen quicken deepen lengthen shorten
SPEAKING: OPEN
TRANSLATION
A
1成功与否取决于她的努力。
2她把窗子打开，让新鲜空气进来。
3他不抽烟，但他父亲烟抽得很凶
4人们之所以关注历史研究的方法，主要是因为史学家们内部分歧过大，其次才是因为外界并不认识历史是一门学科。
5由于人口的猛增或大量人口流动（现代交通工具使大量人口流动变得相对容易）所造成的种种问题也会增加社会压力。
6只要拨对了号码，你就可以在家里电视机上选看到有远方城市一座图书馆发出的预先录制的一出戏、一堂打高尔夫球的讲课，或者一次物理学演讲。
7只要一发现有可能反对他的人，他就本能地要用他的魅力和风趣将这人争取过来。
8她苍白的脸色清楚地表明了她那时的心情。
9独立思考对学习是绝对必需的。
10新主席有礼貌地前来拜访受害者，获得了他们的一些好感。
B 见译文部分。
TEXT B
READING COMPREHENSION
1. The Chinese view of life and things presented in the passage is expressed by the
best and wisest Chinese minds in their folk wisdom and their literature.
2. Chinese poets and scholars present a view of life through their common sense, their realism and their sense of poetry.
3. The nature of Chinese philosophy is an idle philosophy born of an idle life.
4. The Chinese philosopher’s waking life is c haracterized by a dream-world quality,
and he sees the happenings and his own efforts as futile.(or useless)
5. The highest ideal of Chinese culture is represented by a sense of detachment toward
life and high-mindedness.
6. The sense of detachment toward life results in the sense of freedom, love of vagabondage, pride and nonchalance.
7. “Wake up and live” implies that a wise proportion of Americans dream the hours
away.
8. The national mind of Chinese is so racially different and historically isolated that
new answers to the problems of life, new methods of approaches and new posing of problems are expected.
9. For most people, the Chinese mind is intensely practical, hard-headed; for the lovers of Chinese art, it is profoundly sensitive; and for a smaller proportion of
people, it is poetic and philosophical.
10. The Chinese as a nation has survived for four thousand years because the Chinese
have a light, an almost gay philosophy rather than an efficient life.
UNIT THREE
A FEW WORDS FOR LOSING COMPREHENSION
1 Because sport is mainly about “astonishing salaries, hugely lucrative endorsements,
television contract using numbers one is more accustomed to seeing in textbooks on astronomy”.
2 Because even the great winners finally lose.
3 There is always a feeling of sadness after the game.
4 Life for many athletes was much downhill.
5 It means the rank or status of the team. （球队排名）
6 Human limitations might bring some sad situations.
7 Some people are naturally gifted, but others are not.
8 He would “fight”fearlessly, but he didn’t want it to be a “suicide attack”.
9 Open.
10 Open.
VOCABULARY AND STRUCTURE
A
1 lucrative
2 mortal
3 instill
4 wind up
5 prowess
6 cowardly
7 cultivated
8 identified with
9 surmount 10 intact
B
1 inglorious
2 fraught
3 cultivated
4 groomed
5 outset
6 lucrative
7 tournament
8 intact
9 hang around 10 lapse into SPEAKING
: OPEN
TRANSLATION
A
1晚上在参加宴会，出席音乐会，观看乒乓球表演之后，他得起草最后公报。
2这些早期的汽车速度缓慢，行动笨拙，效率不高。
3遗憾的是，过去我们总的目标方面意见是一致的，但涉及各个具体目标时，意见就不一致了，因而也就根本不能采取什么行动。
4我真替她万分担忧，但此时此地既不宜教训她一番，也不宜与她争论一通。
5他们的主人，又是割啊，又是倒啊，又是上菜啊，又是切面包啊，又是说啊，又是笑啊，又是敬酒啊，忙个不停。
6如果对自己的错误都不认识，怎么能悔恨和改正呢？
7 欢迎他的只有几下轻轻地、零零落落、冷冷淡淡的掌声。
8 勇敢过度，即成蛮勇；疼爱过度，即成溺爱；俭约过度，即成贪婪。
B 见译文部分。
UNIT FOUR THE FUTURE OF BOOKS COMPREHENSION
1.Umberto Eco classifies memory into three types: organic memory represented by
human brain; mineral memory represented by clay tablets, obelisks and electronic memory of today’s computer; and vegetal memory represented by the first papyruses and books made of paper.
2.According to Umberto Eco, the libraries function as the places for conservation of
books and have been the most important way of keeping our collective wisdom. 3.“Universal brain” means a place where we can retrieve what we have forgotten
and what we still do not know.
4.According to paragraph 2, humans invent libraries because they know that they do
not have divine powers, but they try to do their best to imitate them.
5.In the computer and Internet era, libraries should not be abolished because they
should survive as museums conserving the past.
pared with reading on a computer screen, reading printed books is the better
way for us to read carefully, to speculate and to reflect about what we are reading.
pared with computers, books have brought a lot of conveniences to humans
computers can’t: books still represent the most economical, flexible way to transport information at a very low cost; books travel with you and at your speed;
it is a valuable instrument and the best companions for a shipwreck.
8.Two industrially exploited inventions are as follows: one is printing on demand,
namely, every book will be tailored according to the desires of the buyer; the other is the e-book which is useful for consulting information.
9.“The idea that a new technology abolishes a previous one is frequently too
simplistic.”What the author means is that there are a lot of new technological devices that have not made previous ones obsolete, that in the history of culture it has never been the case that something has simply killed something else. Rather, a new invention has always profoundly changed an older one.
10.In the computer and internet era, people fear the physical disappearance of books
and printed material;but printed books have a future because computers encourage the production of printed material.
VOCABULARY AND STRUCTURE
A
1. organic
2. designate
3. emulate
4. abolish
5. speculated
6. shipwreck
7. manuscript
8. masterpiece
9.obsolete 10. contribute to
B
1. option
2. flexible
3. reproduce
4. preservation
5. retrieve
6. divine
7. diffuse
8. on the verge of
9. browse 10. memory
C
1. poverty errors enemies a possibility inequality
2. a group an organization a club an association a tribe
3. act for answer for stand for long for prepare for
4. eyepiece timepiece showpiece seapiece centerpiece
5. predictable preschool prewar previous preliminary
6. reproduce revise remove review rewrite
SPEAKING: OPEN
TRANSLATION
A
1 凡是犯了错就应勇于承认。
2没有下雪，但叶落草枯。
3人生的意义不在于已经获取的，而在于渴望得到什么样的东西。
4读书只能给智能提供知识的材料，思想才能把我们所读的东西变成自己的。
5仍然具有这种信念，普通的人要比自然的力量或人类造出来的机器更伟大，而且最终会控制它们。
6她的黑发蓬蓬松松地飘拂在前额上，脸是短短的，上唇也是短短的，露出一排闪亮的牙齿，眉毛又直又黑，睫毛又长又黑，鼻子笔直。
B 见课文译文
Unit five Scientists, scholars, knaves and fools Comprehension
1(a). What relationship between science and the humanities can you learn from the first paragraph?
To some degree, science and the humanities have the same concern: The question raised by science is the most important that can be asked in philosophy and religion. In his book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge,Wilson shows how various fields of inquiry, and especially the humanities and sciences, intersect with each other.
1(b). Do you think science and religion can be reconciled? (Open.)
2(a). What criteria does Author apply when distinguishing science from pseudoscience?
In para.2, the author mentions five diagnostic features as the criteria to distinguish science from pseudoscience: repeatability, economy, mensuration, heuristics and consilience.
2(b). Some label Acupuncture, Qigong, and Chinese Medicine as pseudoscience. Do you agree? Open.
3(a). What point does Author make in paragraph 4 and paragraph 5?
The author gives the topic sentence "The work of real science is hard and often for long intervals frustrating" at the beginning of para.4.
3(b). How does he backup his viewpoint?
In para.4, the author lists and analyses the reasons why it’s hard. In Para.5, the author develops the point by drawing on his own experience and quoting.
3(c). What example and quote does he use?
The example is from his own experience of counseling new Ph.D.'s in biology.
The quotation is from Percy Bridgman: "The scientific method is doing your damnedest, no holds barred."
4. Paragraph 6-8 discuss original discovery. How do these paragraphs relate to one another? Para.6 first introduces the topic sentence "Original discovery is everything" and then explains how the priority of making original discovery defines the process of scientific research.
Para7 and para.8 are about the importance of original discovery and they are related by two sentences of the same structure which introduce two opposite conditions and thus form a sharp contrast (make an important discovery, and ...; Fail to discover, and...).
5(a). According to Alfred North Whitehead, why do scientists learn what they need to know while remaining poorly informed about the rest of the world?
It’s because scientists are mainly concerned about making discovery. They have to concentrate on the part that is needed in the discovery while ignoring the rest.
5(b). What does the greeting question "What are you working on" reveal?
It reveals the fact that what they are doing are of the same nature (making discoveries) and scientists are quite aware what is common among them.
6(a). Will scientists content themselves with the discoveries they have made? Why?
No, they won't. Scientists who have already made some important discoveries are always
strongly motivated and they are ready to set new goals and make continuous efforts.
6(b). What's the difference between scientists and scholars in humanities?
According to Wilson, their research is of different nature: for scholars in the humanities the most valuable work is interpreting and explaining the existing factual knowledge while for scientists original discovery is everything.
7. Can scientists be defined as a social group with a set of beliefs, characters and motivations peculiar to them?
No, they can't. No particular beliefs, characters and motivations can be identified as the defining features. (See Para. 9-11)
8(a). In what sense is scientific research an art?
There is no limitation on how to make a discovery. Scientists enjoy the freedom of applying different thinking skills and styles just like an artist.
8(b). What scientists should do in order to be highly successful?
A scientist who wants to achieve great success should not be afraid of trying new research areas where no previous research can be referred to and he has to decide everything by himself in the exploration.
8(c). According to the author, what intelligence level does normal science require? Why?
The author mentions it as optimum intelligence: On the one hand he should have the adequate intelligence which allows him to do some basic scientific research; on the other, his intelligence level should not be above the one for normal science, otherwise, he would find the mediocre work intolerably boring.
9(a). What advice does the author give to the novice scientists?
The author gives a lot of advice in the last paragraph. It's mainly about how to do scientific research and how to make your work known to and accepted by other scientists.
9(b). Suppose you have the plan to pursue academic study, what difficulties do you think you would have? (Open.)
10. Paraphrase the following figurative sentences:
a. Science is the sword in the stone that humanity finally pulled.
Science is the tool that the human race finally possesses. It has great potentials and is believed to empower and benefit mankind.
b. They spread out like foragers on a picket line, each alone or in small groups probing a carefully chosen, narrow sector.
Similar to those who scatter around the rope along which horses are tied and begin to search widely for food or provisions, scientists, with particular research tasks in their minds, either working individually or cooperating with others, are desperate to make discoveries.
c. They are fellow prospectors pressing deeper into an abstracted world, content most of the time to pick up an occasional nugget but dreaming of the mother lode.
Like those who work together to search for minerals, they push themselves forward and explore deeply into their research areas. They feel satisfied whenever there is a clue to their research, but they would not stop moving forward until real breakthroughs are made.
d. Some are as stolid as tax accounts in April.
Just like the tax accounts taxpayers generally receive in April, some scientists are not very easily aroused or excited. They tend to act in a businesslike way.
e. To be highly successful the scientist must be confident enough to steer for blue water, abandoning sight of land for a while.
A scientist who wants to achieve great success should have trust in his own abilities and be keen on doing pioneering work which is full of risks and uncertainties, without any help from previous research.
Vocabulary and structure
A
1) diagnostic 2) at most 3) spreading out 4) elitists 5) driven
6) set foot on 7) at large 8) utilitarian 9) for its own sake 10) ethos
B
1) sift 2) Admittedly 3) diagnostic 4) counseled 5) notwithstanding
6) steer 7) probed 8) presumptuous 9) strewn with 10) follows up
C
1) ambition, objective, success, goal, victory
2) treasure, collector, critic, gallery, work
3) acquire, apply, broaden, extend, improve
4) experimental, natural, medical, behavioral, social
5) symmetry, parasite, pregnancy, science, gene
6) presumptuous, gregarious, generous, courageous, ferocious
7) productive, reclusive, compulsive, decisive, exclusive
8) marine, merge, oceanic, soil, plot, division
SPEAKING: OPEN
TRANSLATION
A
1、我没有得到这样一个机会。
2、他并不愚笨，仅仅是无知而已。
3、如果他不通知我，我就不去。
4、他无权签订这种合同。
5、虽然他一再解释，疑团仍然存在。
6、他这个人优柔寡断，而且总是反复无常。
7、今天下午学生统统要交作业。
8、它的意义和重要性，不管怎样强调，也不算过分。
9、她有礼貌地默认了她显然不懂得的事情。
10、威尔先生是个矮小、骨瘦如柴的人，黑头发、灰眼睛，脸上总挂着一丝微笑，谁都知道这笑容是伪装的。
B 见课文译文
UNIT SIX ANTHROPOLOGISTS ON THE FRONT LINES Reading comprehension
1. Some anthropologists were criticized for their involvement in military actions.
2. Because CIA wants them to collaborate with the U.S. government’s war on terror. The role social scientists play in the war is too early to assess though some reports show they succeeded in reducing attacks from the Taliban.
3. Montgomery McFate is a navy anthropologist. She is an advocate of the collaboration. Roberto Gonzalez is an associate professor of anthropology at San Jose State University and leading member of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists. He think in this kind of collaboration anthropology will become just another weapon.
4. “Subject” means a person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures; “fervent petitioning” refers to the earnest and fo rmal request AAA received from some of its members to ban the involvement in the collaboration.
5. They find it difficult to be loyal to two communities.
6. Because civilian anthropologists have experienced ethical dilemmas, they would not fully cooperate in military actions. Washington needs social scientists trained in the agency’s own unique culture. But David Price argues that social scientists thinking in an agency-like way would not be as helpful as civilian anthropologists.
7. First, it’s difficult t o build a military education system to train experts in the social sciences. Second, it takes longer to train them when compared to training general officers.
8. The Administration did not take the experts’ advice very seriously.
Vocabulary and structure
A.
1. expel
2. full-fledged
3. fared
4. Colossal
5. Compromised
6. voluntary
7. anonymity
8. in-house
9. self-sufficient 10. besotted
B.
1. pilot
2. unwittingly
3. ad hoc
4. smack of
5. spike
6. soak up
7. certify
8. qualms
9. downright 10. outreach
C.
1. atheist
2. lyrics
3. colloquialism
4. counterpart
5. anti-heroine
6. self-regulation
7. undermine
8. Pentagon
9. pitfall 10. general SPEAKING: OPEN
TRANSLATION
A
1他父亲在意大利北部近海的比萨做小生意。
2 谈判时，我会感到紧张。
一紧张，我就吃东西。
3 由于受季风影响，夏威夷一年四季如春。
夏天到冬天昼夜温差很小。
4 八月中旬,修理组人员在骄阳下工作。
5 他发现自己在竭力抑制损伤灵魂的苦涩。
6 我把椅子挪过去坐下，开始两脚分开，但我突然觉得这样显得不尊重，太不拘礼节，便把两膝并拢，把双手随便地放在膝盖上。
B 见译文部分。
UNIT SEVEN ENTROPY COMPREHENSION
1. It is a precise measure of the amount of disorder.
2. Things around her -- The car, the refrigerator, teeth, windows, baby sitter, hair, the
house, her glasses, and her son’s shoes – all seemed to get out of order.
3. Entropy can only increase, and can not be destroyed. The road to disorder is a
one-way street.
4. Examples in para.4
5. Water at the same level can not work no more, because the energy has defused and
driven away into chaotic caldron of randomness that can do us no possible good.
(students can also quote refrigerator as an example)
6. If couples do not patch small things up, they are doomed to fall apart;
relationships may worsen between nations once they lose opportunities to work out solutions to conflicts.
7. False. It is possible but not easy since creating order in one corner of the universe
always creates more disorders somewhere else.
8. The answer is open. (students are supposed to indicate the price of combating
entropy.)
9. Like anything else, abilities deteriorate when we stop applying our energies to
them.
10. Our world is becoming more complex; our efforts to keep it in order would be
much harder. Entropy is avoidable but which means consistent efforts. But not many people would consistently contribute their efforts.
VOCABULARY AND STRUCTURE
A
1 get the better of
2 instinctively
3 chaotic
4 avalanche
5 random
6 combat
7 uneven
8 mechanics
9 collision 10 out of control B
1. got the better of
2. Randomly
3. back on track
4. Preoccupied
5. Defuse
6. catch
7. Congregated
8. Futility
9. coincidence 10. well-oiled
C
1 waste treatment, waste disposal, waste management, waste classification, waste
gas/water
2 turn down, put down, crack down, beat down, knelt down
3 give up, get up, back up, make up, stir up, put up
4 down payment, downtown, downturn, downtime, down tank
5 untangle, undress, unlock, unloose, untie, unpick, undo
6 irresponsibility, irrationality, irreducibility, irreligion, irregularity
SPEAKING: OPEN
TRANSLATION
A
1人类最后必将解开不明飞行物之谜。
这一点是可以肯定的。
2 那地区是个麻烦的地方，这是大家最容易看得出来的。
3 光射入了它能透过的几乎所有地方，赶走了黑暗，驱散了阴影。
4 她已试了好几次，要帮他们另找一所出租的房子，结果并未成功。
5 他们人数增加了，力量也随之增强。
6一天，匹普外出在阴冷的荒原上游荡时，一个魁梧、凶狠的男子把他吓了一跳。
这个男子威胁他，让他立即为他送些食物来。
7 还不等我决定是谈还是不谈，我就看出来了，说也罢，沉默也罢，我的任何行
动都不过是徒劳。
8 俄国最大的进攻开始于6月22日，这是为了配合英美军队在西线的进攻。
B 见译文部分。
第二部分：各课参考译文
课文A 译文
第一单元
标题有各种翻译，包括“物有所不足，智有所不明”，以及“饥渴求知，虚怀若愚”，或直译“保持饥饿，保持愚蠢”。
（请各位同仁指正）
1 斯坦福是世界上最好的大学之一，今天能参加各位的毕业典礼，我备感荣幸。
我从来没有从大学毕业，说句实话，此时算是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。
今天，我想告诉你们我生命中的三个故事。
2 第一个故事，是关于串起小小的点点。
（原文为“connecting the dots”漂亮的
字体是用高级的算法把点连在一起的，如专于此的Adobe公司的PostScript 字体——译注）
3 我在里德大学呆了6个月就退学了，但之后仍作为旁听生混了18个月后才最
终离开。
我为什么要退学呢？
4 17岁时，因为年幼无知，我选择了一所和斯坦福一样昂贵的大学，我的父母
都是工人阶级，他们倾其所有资助我的学业。
在6 个月之后，我发现自己完全不知道这样念下去究竟有什么用。
当时，我的人生漫无目标，也不知道大学对我能起到什么帮助，所以我决定退学。
我相信车到山前必有路。
当时作这个决定的时候非常害怕，但现在回头去看，这是我这一生所做出的最正确的决定之一。
从我退学那一刻起，我就再也不用去上那些我毫无兴趣的必修课了，我开始旁听那些看来比较有意思的科目。
5 这件事情做起来一点都不浪漫。
因为没有自己的宿舍，我只能睡在朋友房间
的地板上；可乐瓶的押金是5分钱，我把瓶子还回去好用押金买吃的；在每个周日的晚上，我都会步行7英里穿越市区，到Hare Krishna教堂去吃我一周里唯一的一顿大餐。
那顿餐的味道美极了。
我跟随好奇心和直觉所遇见的和做的事情，事后证明大多数都是极其珍贵的经验。
我举一个例子：
6 那个时候，里德大学提供了全美国最好的字体学课程。
整个校园的每一张海
报，每一个抽屉上的标签，都是漂亮的字体。
我选择了一个字体学班，想学学如何能够做得到。
在这个班上，我学习了各种衬线和无衬线字体，如何改
变不同字体组合之间的字间距，以及如何做出漂亮的版式。
那是一种科学永远无法捕捉的充满美感、历史感和艺术感的微妙，我发现这太有意思了。
7 当时，我压根儿没想到这些知识会在我的生命中有什么实际运用价值；但是
10年之后，当我们的设计第一款Macintosh电脑的候，这些东西全派上了用场。
我把它们全部设计进了Mac，这是第一台可以排出好看版式的电脑。
如果当时我大学里没有旁听这门课程的话，Mac就不会提供各种字体和等间距字体。
8 当然我在念大学的那会儿，不可能有先见之明，把那些生命中的点点滴滴都
串起来；但10年之后再回头看，生命的轨迹变得非常清楚。
所以，你要坚信，你现在所经历的将在你未来的生命中串联起来。
你不得不相信某些东西，你的直觉，命运，生活，因缘际会……正是这种信仰让我不会失去希望，它让我的人生变得与众不同。
9 我的第二个故事是关于爱与失去。
10 我是幸运的，在年轻的时候就知道了自己爱做什么。
在我20岁的时候，就和
沃兹在我父母的车库里开创了苹果电脑公司。
我们勤奋工作，只用了10年的时间，苹果电脑就从车库里的两个小伙子扩展成拥有4000名员工，价值达到20亿美元的企业。
而在此之前的一年，我们刚推出了我们最好的产品Macintosh电脑，当时我刚过而立之年。
然后，我就被炒了鱿鱼。
一个人怎么可以被他所创立的公司解雇呢？这么说吧，随着苹果的成长，我们请了一个原本以为很能干的家伙和我一起管理这家公司，在头一年左右，他干得还不错，但后来，我们对公司未来的前景出现了分歧，于是我们之间出现了矛盾。
由于公司的董事会站在他那一边，所以在我30岁的时候，就被踢出了局。
我失去了一直贯穿在我整个成年生活的重心，打击是毁灭性的。
11 在头几个月，我真不知道要做些什么。
我觉得我让企业界的前辈们失望了，
我失去了传到我手上的指挥棒。
我成了人人皆知的失败者，我甚至想过逃离硅谷。
但曙光渐渐出现，我还是喜欢我做过的事情。
在苹果电脑发生的一切丝毫没有改变我，一个比特（bit）都没有。
虽然被抛弃了，但我的热忱不改。
我决定重新开始。
12 我当时没有看出来，但事实证明，我被苹果开掉是我这一生所经历过的最棒
的事情。
成功的沉重被凤凰涅槃的轻盈所代替，每件事情都不再那么确定，我以自由之躯进入了我整个生命当中最有创意的时期。
13 在接下来的5年里，我开创了一家叫做NeXT的公司，接着是一家名叫Pixar
的公司，并且结识了后来成为我妻子的曼妙女郎。
Pixar制作了世界上第一部全电脑动画电影《玩具总动员》，现在这家公司是世界上最成功的动画制作公司之一。
后来经历一系列的事件，苹果买下了NeXT，于是我又回到了苹果。
我和劳伦斯也拥有了美满的家庭。
14 我非常肯定，如果没有被苹果炒掉，这一切都不可能在我身上发生。
对于病
人来说，良药总是苦口。
生活有时候就像一块板砖拍向你的脑袋，但不要丧失信心。
热爱我所从事的工作，是一直支持我不断前进的唯一理由。
你得找出你的最爱，对工作如此，对爱人亦是如此。
工作将占据你生命中相当大的一部分，从事你认为具有非凡意义的工作，方能给你带来真正的满足感。
而从事一份伟大工作的唯一方法，就是去热爱这份工作。
如果你到现在还没有找到这样一份工作，那么就继续找。
不要安于现状。
15 我的第三个故事是关于死亡。
16 在17 岁的时候，我读过一句格言，好像是：“如果你把每一天都当成你生命
里的最后一天，你将在某一天发现原来一切皆在掌握之中。
”这句话从我读到之日起，就对我产生了深远的影响。
在过去的33年里，我每天早晨都对着镜子问自己：“如果今天是我生命中的末日，我还愿意做我今天本来应该做的事情吗？”当一连好多天答案都否定的时候，我就知道做出改变的时候到了。
17 提醒自己行将入土是我在面临人生中的重大抉择时，最为重要的工具。
因为
所有的事情——外界的期望、所有的尊荣、对尴尬和失败的惧怕——在面对死亡的时候，都将烟消云散，只留下真正重要的东西。
在我所知道的各种方法中，提醒自己即将死去是避免掉入畏惧失去这个陷阱的最好办法。
人赤条条地来，赤条条地走，没有理由不听从你内心的呼唤。
18 大约一年前，我被诊断出癌症。
在早晨7：30我做了一个检查，扫描结果清
楚地显示我的胰脏出现了一个肿瘤。
医生告诉我，几乎可以确定这是一种不治之症，顶多还能活3至6个月。
大夫建议我回家，把诸事安排妥当，这是医生对临终病人的标准用语。
我整天都想着诊断结果。
那天晚上做了一个切
片检查，我打了镇静剂，结果是一非常罕见的、可以通过手术治疗的胰脏癌。
我接受了手术，现在已经康复了。
19 这是我最接近死亡的一次，我希望在随后的几十年里，都不要有比这一次更
接近死亡的经历。
在经历了这次与死神擦肩而过的经验之后，我能够更肯定地告诉你们死亡对我来说只是一个纯粹的理性概念。
20 没人想死。
即使想去天堂的人，也是希望能活着进去。
死亡是我们每个人的
人生终点站，没人能够成为例外。
生命就是如此，因为死亡很可能是生命最好的造物，它是生命更迭的媒介，送走耋耄老者，给新生代让路。
现在你们还是新生代，但不久的将来你们也将逐渐老去，被送出人生的舞台。
21 你们的时间有限，所以不要把时间浪费在别人的生活里。
不要被条条框框束
缚。
不要让他人的观点所发出的噪音淹没你内心的声音。
最为重要的是，要有遵从你的内心和直觉的勇气，它们可能已知道你其实想成为一个什么样的人。
其他事物都是次要的。
22 在我年轻的时候，有一本非常棒的杂志叫《全球目录》（The Whole Earth
Catalog），它被我们那一代人奉为圭臬。
那是在60年代末期，个人电脑、桌面发排系统还没有出现，所以出版工具只有打字机、剪刀和宝丽来相机。
这本杂志有点像印在纸上的Google，但那是在Google出现的35年前；它充满了理想色彩，内容都是些非常好用的工具和了不起的见解。
23 在《全球目录》快无疾而终的时候，他们出版了最后一期。
在最后一期的封
底有一张清晨乡间公路的照片。
在照片下面有一排字：Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.这是他们停刊的告别留言。
我总是以此自诩。
现在，在你们毕业开始新生活的时候，我把这句话送给你们。
24 Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
25 谢谢大家。
第二单元
生活的两条真理
抓紧,然后松手：理解这一悖论，你就站在智慧的大门口。
